1.9 Recognizing diverse PhD trajectories: Rethinking doctoral assessment (G)

@annaroodhof & Benthe van Wanrooij
Over the past years, the PhD trajectory has become more diverse. PhD candidates are able to not only train their research skills but also develop competences in for example communication, leadership, education, open science, and impact. Throughout their training, PhD candidates perform a diverse range of tasks related to these competences that do not always result in concrete output for their thesis. However, doctoral assessment is still mostly based on the doctoral thesis, where the PhD trajectory is deemed successful if PhD candidates are able to produce novel independent research in the form of the thesis. Thus, all other tasks performed and competences developed by the PhD candidate remain invisible in the assessment and may not be recognized and rewarded unless they indirectly result in a dissertation chapter. Therefore, in this session we will explore whether relying solely on the PhD thesis for assessment is still appropriate given the changing nature of a PhD degree. Moreover, we want to imagine with the participants of the workshop what doctoral assessment could look like if we consider how PhDs could be recognized and rewarded for their activities that go beyond doing research.